Ch 1.5 Self Employment Is All Work And No Play
The infancy stage of the business life cycle is characterized by self-employment. Self-employed people work for themselves and want to be their own boss. You are likely to be self-employed:
• If you charge an hourly rate, earn a commission, retainer or call our charge
• If you don’t earn any money when you take a vacation
• If you work all hours of the day in your business
• If you leave your “business” for three months and come back to find a parking lot!
When employees get scared, they find security in a job. When self-employed people get scared, they take control by doing things themselves. Independence and freedom is very important to them. Doctors, lawyers realtors, small biz owners and 99% of Internet marketers all follow this self employed model.
The mantra of self-employed is “No one can do it better than me” and “I’ll just do it myself as it will be quicker than getting someone else to do it.” The more physically you are involved in your work, the more likely you are self-employed.
Whilst there are rewards for being your own boss, such as increased independence, the freedom from being told what to do, and not being dependent on others for your income, it brings some other responsibilities. As an employee you used to work in the system. Now you are most likely to be the system.
In addition to the work you used to do as an employee, you will now be attending to other important functions like administration, accountancy, sales, negotiation, marketing, hiring and firing staff. Freedom from having someone tell you what to do leads to a lack of another freedom. Your weekends and evenings will now be taken up with these chores.
You will require a certain skill set for the game of self-employment. Each of these are dealt with in more detail in the section on Deadly Sin 3 Having Insufficient Skills:
• Time management and prioritization skills to help maximize your productivity
• Decision making skills to drive your business forward
• Negotiation skills to get you to a win-win solution
• Networking skills to make the most of your opportunities
• Selling skills as each business begins with a sale